Two Times Shy Wits End (Single)

Pop-punk is a bit like black metal; if you pull a hair’s worth of formula out of it, it ceases to be.

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Brisbane’s Two Times Shy are riding high after gaining a bit of attention for their first EP It Looks Better Than It Sounds and July’s belter Gone; and throughout this fresh, buoyant, and slick three minutes-forty it’s 100% pop-punk, albeit with a slight Pig City character.

Aussie pop punk is like a parallel export; we tend to design it for overseas markets. We then hope US Warped Tour (RIP) big fish nibble on the bait. These guys, at least at first blush, want to do their own thing instead. As a brash three-chorder fades from view, vocalist Douglas Hudswell declares, “It’s nothing personal, but I don’t wanna be like you,” the tail-end echoing into eternity like the opening crawl from Star Wars.

That bright and bold earworm of a riff crashes back into the song, vocals all harmony and guitars tickling the fringes of our soundscape.

That bright and bold earworm of a riff crashes back into the song, vocals all harmony and guitars tickling the fringes of our soundscape. With a touch of two-step dynamism, Two Times Shy nail the brief; it’s all smiles and charm as the band bash about their first world problems. By the end of the track, everything is all right with the world. That’s not to say it ever wasn’t. Just like their Bostonian bros Four Year Strong before them, tearing up an otherwise impenetrable rulebook can work wonders.

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